The guys behind franchises like Grand Theft Auto or Bully are now ready to start from all over again with a new PlayStation 3 exclusive, which just got announced on Sony’s official blog.

 Michael Shorrock, Director of 3rd Party Relations, SCEA, said: “we are announcing that a new franchise from Rockstar Games will be exclusive to PS3. As part of our long standing relationship with Rockstar, and the incredible success for both companies with the cultural icon that is Grand Theft Auto, we’ve agreed to the PlayStation exclusive rights of the next great franchise from the Rockstar studios.

Everyone knows to have success in this business you need to look ahead, identifying the talent and titles that are going to give consumers new kinds of gaming experiences that help set the bar for the rest of the industry. 

Rockstar has a heritage for doing just that. We have had incredible success with the GTA franchise and are happy to continue to offer those titles on our platforms, and even more excited about what’s to come from the current and future relationship between our companies. Rockstar really wanted to make a game that you can truly only do on PS3, harnessing the power of CELL and Blu-ray disc and this deal lets them do just that… 

This is really a win-win situation for both companies. As Jack [Tretton] mentioned in the interview with Geoff [knighte, this franchise is not LA Noire, but something all new. We agreed with Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive Software that we wouldn’t disclose anything more about the deal or title at this time, so stay tuned, we’ll share more info as soon as we can.”

In the recent period Sony lost some of the upcoming PS3 exclusives, like Ubisoft’s Haze (which is now a timed exclusive, meaning that it will come out a week before the Xbox 360 and PC version) and Assassin’s Creed, Fatal Inertia or Devil May Cry 4, and apparently is Ken Kutaragi’s slowness to be blamed. However, Sony did manage to get a more consistent timed-exclusive, namely Unreal Tournament III, which will come out long before the Xbox and PC versions.